March marches on

Post 13/2021 Friday 26 March . . . A twinge of unease underlies my feelings of delight as I walk among the first signs of spring. It’s a slight twinge, alongside my delight in bird song. First flowers. Buds. Balmy temperatures. The grand awakening of the out-of-doors. Freedom, again, to have company indoors. Friends Dean and Gwen came for dinner, the first company in ages, bringing a bouquet of tulips and daffodils. How filled with wonder is the world.

My unease is harder to define. It has little to do with the short-lives of spring flowers, seasonal transitions, the march of time. Nor has it to do mainly with what we take for normal at the moment–unpredictable weather; environmental issues; the lurking dangers of Covid-19; though I do pay attention to them all.

Concerning Covid-19, even with more people getting vaccinated, the virus is still a pandemic, a life form that covers every corner of the globe. In ways yet to be seen, we’re told that our way of life Before Covid-19 will not return. We are left to figure out what life will be like After Covid, BC to AC. As a youngster would say, “Isn’t it exciting!” Thank God for the voices of children and youth.

We’ll get to something akin to normal when more people worldwide are vaccinated. It is exciting that we have vaccines in hand less than a year after the virus outbreak. Michael Martin, in Microsoft News (March 25), quotes Dr Jennifer Nuzzo, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security: “Vaccines are incredibly important, and they’re going to pave the path to normalcy for us.” She underscores the need for continued vigilance in following health protocols and for all countries to have access to the vaccines.

The Cardinal, Indiana’s state bird, rests at ease high atop a utility pole.

Maybe my sense of unease is really just a funky moment. For instance, I went more than a week without a watch. It needed a battery. Got that changed on Monday. It probably also stemmed from the demise of our long-lived combination coffee maker-grinder. Are not those trusty brew masters meant to last a lifetime? Even as I write, I smile, already edging away from unease. We’re in no hurry to replace our coffee maker. The French Press will do for now.

We’ll be back to some familiar “normalcy,” but something more, too, given new awareness, stirrings and initiatives being applied to the pressing issues at the forefront of today’s world. We’re on the way to a renewed, indeed, a new, exciting, future for all. My sensations of delight, then, massively override the, even rightful, twinge of unease. As a person of Christian faith, I say, Amen!

In sum, I’ll add another antiphon to those included in last week’s blog. In the reflective nature of Lent, here is my early step toward Holy Week and Easter Sunday.

O Gate

Clang of latch on entering

Hywyn’s consecrated burial ground

signals quiet beyond

the borderland;

in peal of celestial bells:

announce resurrection

gates open wide.